Azzurra Cox: Landscapes of Belonging: Grounding Black Memory, Sowing Black Futures

'The story of being Black in America is, in many ways, the story of forced removal from home. Home is contested ground. The right to claim land, to feel one’s ancestors in the yard, is tantamount to the right to self-determination. And the removal of that right is a means for rupturing communities, breaking ties to people, culture, and the land. In this talk, Azzurra Cox explored how American narratives of the natural—from the sublime scale of our national parks to the intimate scale of our everyday landscapes—have historically entailed an erasure of nuanced, often fraught Black narratives around land and belonging. Drawing from her research and practice as a landscape designer, she illustrated how reclaiming these landscapes—and the stories therein—is an act of both cultural memory and cultural projection. Cox is a landscape architect and writer interested in the power of landscapes to shape and reflect collective narratives. As an Associate at GGN, she has worked on urban-scale projects across the country.'